Air India Express to function independent of parent airline with own pilot pool

MUMBAI: Air India Express will start functioning independently of its parent airline and soon be able to operate as a separate entity with its own pool of pilots, according to a top Air India executive.

The move is aimed at smoothening the operations of Air India's budget carrier, which has been struggling with its flight schedule as it uses the same pilot pool as state-run Air India to operate its near-200 flights a week.

"Air India Express will be allowed to function as an independent company and in insulation from Air India," Air India's chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan told ET. "We are now putting in place a formula that would resolve the pilot issue for Air India Express. Pilots will no more go from Air India as we are getting expat trainers for Air India Express."

Air India Express has a fleet of 21 aircraft. In the recent past, it was forced to restructure its network and withdraw some flights in the winter schedule (effective October 28) because of pilot shortage. Its profitable flights to Abu Dhabi from Chennai were affected, for instance.

According to travel agents, the airline cancelled at least 168 flights in September to the Gulf from southern India, which has a sizeable number of people undertaking job-related travel to the Middle-east. Recently, Kerala announced plans to start an airline to meet the burgeoning demand for cheaper flights.

According to Nandan, the number of trainers for Air India Express would go up from four at present to 13 by December-end, enabling the carrier to have sufficient number of trained pilots. Although Air India Express has a separate air-operating permit, it was unable to leverage this to enhance its network.

Also planned for the Kochi-headquartered carrier are dedicated officials to look after its flight operations in other cities and a call centre for handling queries.

"There will be separate deputy heads for commerce, finance and operations and Air India Express will have offices in Chennai and Mangalore," Nandan said. A separate MRO for Express aircraft at Trivandrum has already been announced.

The budget carrier had made a presentation to the civil aviation ministry in August stating that it needs at least 200 more pilots.

It also has very low aircraft utilisation that is half of the industry practice for at least 12 hours for a Boeing narrow-body 737-800 type. The airline had come under criticism from the civil aviation regulator for its poor safety record after an annual safety audit last year found procedural shortcomings besides shortage of pilots and trainers.

But a senior Air India executive said that putting the airline back in the reckoning will help Air India, as there is huge demand on the routes in the Middle East and southeast Asia, where the airline is losing out to other carriers. "By and large, there is a need for a budget airline operating effectively as an answer to the growing influence of budget carriers from southeast Asia and the Gulf region, as there is a demand that needs to be fulfilled from these regions," an Air India executive said.

Travel industry experts said that if Air India Express is able to stick to its schedules, there is no reason why the shift in demand, currently to carriers like Air Arabia, will not reverse.